Opal (Aeir)

Glimmering the many colors of the rainbow, this smooth gem, naturally clear, yet thrums and hums with the energy of the sky, the wind, Aeir itself.

Properties

Material Characteristics

These gems shimmer with the rainbow, the wind around them, whispering and billowing, the energy pulsing within the gem, the manna of Aeir thick within it. It catches the eye, a value beyond monetary. For those with appropriate education, be they runesmith or magi, they know what they hold before them.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Visibly these gems shimmer with a white light that at certain angles seems to split into a rainbow of colors, a visual illusion of sorts. To the touch it is oddly cool, like the air of a mid autumn breeze. That is all any of the mundane or untrained would know. But those select few, runesmiths and magi, sense the energy, the manna of Aeir within. For the magi, this is a valuable resource in this form, a rechargable battery of sorts, and purifier, holding untainted manna, manna not touched by Tzeentch's curse, manna not warped by the Void. The energy can be drawn up, the manna used to cast. However energy cannot be drawn into it by a caster. This is dangerous and oft catastrophic. But if one can find a proper leyline, a thick flow of Aeir, one can leave such a gem, empty and drained of manna. Over a few (12) hours it will recharge, filtering Tzeentch's taint out of the manna, a visible black mist that will be left behind, inert but for the strange, discomforting feeling to any whom approach it, as if they can feel what it used to be.

Compounds

Dwarven and Gnomish masters of Runesmithing, however, find such gems wasted, in their opinion, in the hand of Magi. For they have a secret art, a careful procedure to grind up such a stone into a fine dust, charged with manna. This ritual and procedure leave this dust so manna infused that they are self sufficient, a very volatile material. It is used in masterful works of the craft, to fill and seal the runes upon arms or armor, or indeed other items. This seal enhances and adds to the effects of the runic effects, indeed adding completely new effects.

History & Usage

Refinement

The process for turning it into the fine dust for runesmithing is a closely guarded secret of the dwarven and gnomish masters, they do not share such trade secrets. So none truly know how it is done.